With a growing number of users searching for information through social, businesses are adapting their advertising strategies to communicate with potential customers in new ways. However, the cost of advertising on social media, particularly Facebook, has risen to a price small businesses and start-ups cannot afford. What else is there, beyond the ol’ Facebook ad?

Finally! It’s possible for businesses small and large to get in front of Instagram’s 14 million monthly active users after paid for advertising has officially been rolled out across the platform.

Instagram is a great way of building a story, whether it be of your everyday life, or, increasingly, of the business you work for. Integrating Instagram into your brand’s paid marketing approach may be just what your company needs to strengthen its brand building, reach a wider audience, and produce significant business growth. According to Instagram, their users are 2.8x as likely to recall your ad compared with other forms of online advertising, something to keep in mind when planning your digital marketing strategy.

5 TIPS FOR INSTAGRAM AD SUCCESS

1) INTEGRATE

Step one – Integrate your Instagram adverts with your other digital activity to track the results of the campaign, compare with other platforms and evaluate the relevancy on a regular basis to determine what works best.

Levi’s were one of the first brands to trial Instagram ads and the results paid off. The classic American retailer used Instagram to style its apparel as the uniform for living in the moment, reaching 7.4 million people. In addition, 24% of people who saw more than one ad remembered seeing a Levi’s® ad. “Not only were we able to reach a large audience with our ads on Instagram, but the metrics clearly show we engaged with them in a memorable and authentic way,” said Julie Channing, Levi’s director of digital.

2) GET FAMILIAR WITH THE AD OPTIONS

Image Ads

With image ads, businesses can tell their story through beautiful imagery. Whether it’s inspiring people to see your brand differently or to take action, they offer a clean, simple and beautiful creative canvas.

Capital One put imagery at the center of their five-week long #WalletStories campaign by re imaging their well known “What’s in Your Wallet?” tagline and encouraging people to open their wallets and share the keepsakes and memories they carry with them. The brand tapped 3 popular
photographers to document these stories with original, authentic creative. As a result, Capital One achieved a significant 16 point lift in ad recall, 2.5x higher than Nielsen’s norms for online campaigns, which helped the banking brand elevate their awareness among their audience.

Video Ads

Video ads offer the same visually immersive quality as photo ads on Instagram — with the power of sight, sound and motion. And now, you can share videos up to 30 seconds long and in landscape format.

Birchbox created an Instagram video campaign capturing the surprise and delight of the monthly beauty subscription. Showcasing their upbeat editorial style and quality products, the 15-second videos made a big impact on potential customers, dramatically boosting brand awareness with its target audience.

Carousel Ads

Carousel ads bring an additional layer of depth to image ads. People can swipe to see additional images and a call to action button takes them to a website to learn more.

This carousel ad by Tesco Food encourages the user to continue swiping in order to reveal the full image. This is a great example of drawing in a user through a story, a very delicious one at that!

3) MAKE A VISUAL IMPACT

Using an amazing image will stop a user from scrolling right past your advert. Choose wisely!

“It’s not just about posting something and taking a picture; we put a lot of craftsmanship into all our posts. For me it’s all about the visual identity of the brand. Images speak a thousand words and that’s the mindset we need to take on for all our work in social media.” – Wise words from Emma Page, Audi’s digital communications manager as they plan to get more visual with a focus on a big Instagram push into 2016.

4) MAKE YOUR WEBSITE MOBILE-FRIENDLY

As Instagram is specifically geared towards mobile browsing, it is important to lead users who click on your adverts to a mobile optimised landing page, for a seamless and engaging experience.

5) USE BRANDING

Unlike Facebook, Instagram allows you to apply over 20% text to your ad image, this might include your logo or tag line. It’s key to have branding elements present in paid media images and video to enhance ad recall.

Turkish Airlines took to Instagram in early February for four weeks with its #EpicFood campaign. Keeping the logo subtly in the background, and focusing on the food itself led to a 28 point lift in ad recall and 13 point lift in brand awareness.

How Do Instagram Adverts Work?

Just like a cocktail, lead generation is all about how you mix channels to determine how this fares with your target audience. You want to offer the right amounts of key elements like substance, flavour and sweetness – but it can be hard to get it right.

Check out our infographic below, which shows how you can get the mix just right for your consumers to achieve a winning result!

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Acquiring new customers is essential for business growth, so knowing where to find them and what works is not just useful; it’s essential.

Come and join us and the DMA at London’s Ham Yard Hotel on 15th October and be amongst the first to learn what your potential customers feel strongly about. Are they prepared to be acquired? What are the best messages and channels that turns them from a prospect in to a customer?

The DMA launched the first Customer Acquisition Barometer in 2014, looking at what was most important to consumers when brands want their business.

‘The Medi ctpus’. That’s our temporary name.

Why? As part of National Blood Week (8th – 14th June 2015), NHS Blood and Transplant have launched a campaign to get more people to give more blood.

Currently the UK is suffering a major shortage of donors; in just 10 years the number of blood donors in England and Wales has dropped by 40%.

204,000 new donors are needed to come forward to meet demands replace those who can’t donate anymore, to ensure the right mix of blood groups are available.

Those from Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority communities are lacking in particular, making up less than 5% of those who have donated in the last 12 months.

Well-known brands like Odeon cinemas, Green & Blacks’ and the Daily Mail are showing their support for the #MissingType campaign by dropping the letters A, O and B from their logos, representing the different blood groups.

A serious and important issue, we’re also helping to raise awareness of a lack of donors, which is why we’ve removed the specific letters here:

Head over to the NHS Give Blood site to find out how YOU can do something amazing and help save or improve up to three lives by giving blood.

A day in the life of Jack. You could say Jack is representative of a demographic aged between 21-35, highly engaged in technology and social media channels during their day to day life. They want convenience, accessibility and expect things to be available on demand.

For businesses, this opens up a whole range of opportunities to reach your audience and interact with them through various touchpoints. Using Jack as an example, we have demonstrated a typical journey of a mutli-channel acquisition journey, with statistics and facts to consider along the way.

Although Jack’s day is just an example of a particular demographic, we hope this infographic shows how powerful digital marketing can potentially be when operated through the relevant channels to grab your audiences’ attention.

Multi-Channel Attribution Journey

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We’re always keeping our ear to the ground when it comes to news, updates and recent studies about all things digital marketing and media. Which is why Ofcom’s Media Use and Attitudes 2015 report particularly caught our eye, focusing on how consumers’ use of online media channels has changed over the past 10 years.

You could say some of the findings are perhaps unsurprising, but nevertheless, the numbers are staggering in terms of change in a short space of time. People are spending twice as much time online compared to a decade ago, according to Ofcom, fuelled by increasing use of tablets and smartphones as technology and digital platforms continue to emerge and evolve at a rapid pace.

Here’s a round-up of some of the key stats with graphics used from the original post.

Living an online life

Back in 2005 internet users aged 16 and above claimed to spend 9 hours and 54 minutes online each week, while in 2014 this doubled to over 20 hours and 30 minutes. The biggest increase was among 16-24 year olds, jumping from 10 hours and 24 minutes each week in 2005, to 27 hours and 36 minutes by the end of 2014. This may even be higher in 2015…

On the go convenience

Because of this freedom to browse online while out and about, away from our desks and laptops, the amount of time has increased massively over the past ten years, from 30 minutes in 2005 to 2 hours and 18 minutes in 2014.

Going crazy for tablets

No, we can’t believe it either…Apple’s iPad launched in the UK five years ago. FIVE YEARS. Since then, the adoption of tablets and smartphones has become mainstream and boosted time spent online.

Compared to just 5% of adults using a tablet for online purposes in 2010, four years later this grew to 39%, while using a smartphone more than doubled in five years, from 30% to 66% in 2014.

Mobile messaging on the move

WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and BBM – ten years ago, we’d never heard of them; these days, these instant messaging apps are a key means of communicating.

From 29% of mobile users in 2013 to 42% in 2014, mobile instant messaging has grown rapidly, particularly within the 25-34 year olds, which saw a jump from 38% in 2005 to 80% of internet users between this age group.

Compared to 70% in 2005, 90% of mobile users in 2014 sent text messages, while using our phones to send emails has also grown from 5% in 2005 to 52% in eight years. Making a phone call over the internet (VoIP) stood at 27% in 2013, while a year later this increased to 43%.

Never-ending social growth

Social media just keeps growing; back in 2007, 22% of internet users aged 16 and above had a social media profile, tripling to 72% in 2014. 81% of social media users log into Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram at least once a day, up from 30% in 2007.

Interestingly, the 35-44 year old age group has seen the biggest growth, with 12% of internet users on social media in 2007 compared to 80%. Meanwhile, in 2014 49% of 55-64 year olds now have a social media profile, an increase of 16% from 2013.

Online worries and concerns

Perhaps surprisingly, concerns about the internet have dropped from 70% in 2005 to 51% in 2014. When it comes to mobile apps, however, there is more worry – 28% in 2014 compared to 20% a year earlier, mainly focusing around security, fraud or privacy.

Although 68% are comfortable with providing personal information online, more say they would never provide their credit or debit card details (13% in 2013, up to 21% a year later), or their mobile number (17% in 2013 to 26% in 2014).

Public and civic activities

There is more information over on the full report, but it is worth noting the increase of people going online for public or civic activities: up from 49% in 2005 to 78% in 2014. 44% of internet users visited political or campaigning websites, compared to 19% nine years previous.

Battle between mobile and TV

This is where we see a notable difference between the age groups when it comes to TV versus mobile. 37% of adults say they would miss their TV more than any other device, with mobiles coming a close second (32%). On the other hand, 59% of 16-24 year olds stated their phone would be the first thing they missed compared to just 17% for TV.

Online entertainment and gaming

Another trend that has dramatically increased is how we are watching TV and video on the internet. In 2007 one in ten of us was doing so, then fast-forward eight years and 27% of internet users now watch TV and film online. When it comes to watching video clips online, this has near doubled in just eight years, from 21% to 39% of users.

Looking at gaming, mobile devices are now the primary device used, with 26% playing games at least once a week compared to 17% playing them on games consoles, and 15% of adults using a tablet. In 2014, 22% of internet users regularly played games online, up from 10% in 2005.

It will be fascinating to see how the stats, attitudes and technological offerings change over time, within the next ten years. Already predictions have been made but only time will tell whether we become more consumed by digital media; it’s an exciting time for both marketers and consumers either way!

Social media advertising has grown massively over the past few years, providing creative and impactful ways of reaching and engaging with online audiences. While it can be perceived that social media thrives better in the B2C sphere, recently B2B marketers have stepped up their game and proved that campaigns can contribute value to the brand while generating interest and conversation with their audience.

According to B2B Marketing, last year LinkedIn was the most used platform (94%) and generated the most revenue (40%). For boosting brand awareness, Twitter was cited as the best, with a combined total of 62% saying that social media is important or critical for a brand. Although there are challenges ahead, as with any area of marketing, it seems the future for B2B social media activity is a bright one.

We’ve pulled together our top 5 tips to help ensure your B2B social media campaigns are a success by maximising the opportunities this marketing route offers:

1) Define your objectives

Be clear with what you want to achieve from the start, just as with any type of marketing campaign. Determine who you aim to target, what course of action you want them to take, what you are measuring as ‘success’ and metrics to track this.

Outlining your aims will help to focus the activity around these, while identifying any potential hurdles that could hinder your campaign along the way.

2) Decide on the right channels

Whatever your business, it is likely that a proportion of your audience are on Twitter and Facebook. Although perhaps lacking the professional focus that LinkedIn offers and audience targeting is more consumer based, it is still possible to find and segment a B2B audience through user connections. Accuracy may be less, but a much lower cost per click is achievable on both channels.

A more obvious choice for B2B marketers is LinkedIn, thanks to its focus on business. Offering various ways to identify and segment an audience based on professional background, advertising avenues are better suited for the B2B sector – although it is a more expensive option. For larger companies wanting to generate leads this may be suitable, but it could prove costly for those aiming to raise awareness.

It is worth experimenting with a mix of paid activity; LinkedIn for high value and high cost along with Facebook and/or Twitter for higher volume at a lower cost. See what works for your brand, you never know until you try!

3) Content is king – as is delivery

Content plays a significant part in a campaign and will determine how successful it is depending on its quality, authority and relevance to your audience. Make sure what you put out is valuable and interesting enough to generate interaction, plus consider how people will access the content. If you’re driving users to an external domain away from social channels, ensure the landing page is mobile and tablet friendly.
For lead generation, content needs to include an element of persuasion and in most cases, for the user to submit their information for data capture e.g. leaving an email address or downloading a white paper. Allow for A/B testing of images and text content when it comes to ad creative on social platforms – each channel will differ but by testing, you will discover which combinations work to optimise your campaign.

Visual-based content is ideal for generating awareness as a result of being attention grabbing, concise and vibrant; make it as easy as possible for people to view and share content. Don’t try and sell a product; instead, offer knowledge, insights and support through interactive content to help foster the community aspect. Rather than sales messages driven through adverts, promoting content through social media channels is a much more effective way of capturing your audience.

4) Set guidelines for interactions

When your B2B social media campaign is up and running, be ready for the interaction it will generate, whether positive or negative comments or questions wanting to find out more. Have guidelines in place for those responding to and monitoring activity, so the individual is clear on how to react.

Making the most of opportunities, dealing with damaging comments or passing on a lead are all important points to consider and establish within your business.

5) Measuring the value of the campaign

Measurement is a crucial part of all marketing campaigns, in particular when it involves demonstrating the value of social media campaigns and its contribution to your business.

Going back to the first point about defining objectives, these will form the KPIs – what metrics indicate the success of the campaign.

Key metrics to track:

Referral traffic from social: How many unique visitors from social media channels click through to the company website/blog.

Follower/fan growth: Number of people who follow on these channels, subscribe, etc. Note this down manually weekly or monthly, or use analytics.

Content performance: Which type of content performed best on the different channels (the answer could be different for each) – click rate on social shares.

Social influence score: Tools like Klout calculate this based on your social activity, interactions and influence – always aim to improve over time!

Revenue generated: The precise monetary value of every lead that a social post generates – this could be social e-commerce sales, conversion rates, etc.

It can be a challenge to track these statistics but the majority of social media platforms have their own reporting tools, which can be complemented by social listening and tracking tools like Sprout Social, Hootsuite and Google Analytics. From here you can identify what worked, what didn’t and how you could better optimise your social campaigns in the future.

Be sure to analyse the behaviour of users if driving traffic to your company website was one of the key objectives of running the campaign, to better understand how and why variations of content or channels converted as they did.

So there you go, a rundown of the key points when considering or running a B2B social media campaign. If you’re interested in learning more or need help, get in touch and see how our social media team can advise you!

As part of its goal of ‘full transparency’ for marketers, Google have announced viewability reporting across its ad platforms. This means that now, brands who publish video ads via DoubleClick will know whether their content is being watched by users, as opposed to scrolling off-screen or being skipped.

According to the company, while advertisers won’t know whether the sounds was on, or how long their ad was viewable, both of these features are said to come later this year. However, this announcement means that Google will now tell advertisers whether at least 50% of their video ad was in view for at least two seconds.

A truer picture of ‘viewability’

In the coming days, Google will roll out viewability reporting to all marketers and publishers on DoubleClick and its ad exchange. Ads booked through Google Preferred (a service pairing advertisers with the top YouTube channels) or YouTube ads reserved at a premium will also be able to benefit from these changes.

As director of media and advertising trade body, ISBA, Bob Wootton commented on the subject of reimbursing advertisers for ads which are not viewable:

“There is a discussion to be had around the Media Rating Council’s [standard] that has been implemented in the US. Seeing an ad for around two seconds with 50% in view surely is a very low bar to meet when talking about ‘viewable’ impressions.”

Making viewability a concrete metric for video ads, VP of video and display ads for Google, Neal Mohan, emphasises the need for full transparency for marketers:

“With the confidence that their ads can be seen by a real person, marketers can then go on to strive for – and measure – what really matters: impact and engagement.”

What are your thoughts on this? Comment on the post below or tweet us @TheMediaOctopus, we’d love to hear from you.